In an apparent bid to woo support for the Keystone XL pipeline, the Government of Canada has laid claim to two of the busiest metro stations in Washington, D.C.

National PostAn ad in the Washington, D.C. Metro.

Since at least early January, thousands of commuters in the U.S. capital have passed under massive banners showcasing idyllic scenes and touting up the Great White North as “America’s best energy partner.”

“America faces a choice: It can import oil from Canada – a secure and environmentally responsible neighbor that is committed to North American energy independence – or it can choose less stable offshore sources with much weaker environmental standards,” reads one ad against an image of two little girls posing next to U.S. and Canadian flags.

Another ad, wrapped around a large concrete pole, is merely a chart showing that Canada sends 2.4 millions barrels of oil per day to the United States, “more oil to America than Saudi Arabia and Venezuela combined.”

The ads, all clearly emblazoned with the “Government of Canada” logo, have been featured at both Metro Center and Farrugut North, respectively the second and third busiest stations on the Washington Metro rapid transit system.

Both stations are strategically located within three blocks of the White House and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Farrugut North, in particular, is immediately adjacent to K Street, the traditional home of Washington, D.C. lobbying firms.

However, the U.S. State Department, the agency that is currently working on its final recommendation for the Keystone XL pipeline, is still a 25-minute walk to the southwest.

The department’s recommendation is expected to be complete by the spring, after which President Barack Obama is expected to make a decision on approving the northern portion of the pipeline, which would connect the Alberta oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

So far, while it is difficult to gauge the political impact of the Canadian ad blitz, they have certainly seemed to attract attention from the city’s media class.

Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg seemed more bemused at the apparent existence of a Canada lobby. “There’s a ton of pro-Canada propaganda in the Farragut North metro station,” he wrote last week. “Some underlying tension I’m not aware of?”

The Metro ads all contain an address for the federally-operated website, GoWithCanada.ca.

There, visitors are treated to an image of the Country Above the United States as a friendly, democratic nation that abhors pipeline spills, loves its environment and is the only rational way for the United States to achieve energy independence. Canada is a “reliable source of fuel,” it reads.

Amid playing up the benefits of Canadian oil, the website boasts that the country is the “first major coal user to ban construction of traditional coal-fired electricity generation units.” The site also plays up Canadian efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and notes that the non-profit Nature Conservancy of Canada has preserved “835,637 acres of natural habitat – an area larger than the individual landmass of 80 countries in the world.”

The Metro ads are not the first time that Canada has sent advertising dollars inside the beltway.

In early 2013, Natural Resources Canada similarly launched a pro-oil campaign with the tagline “America’s best friend is America’s best energy solution.”

According to Washington-based focus groups quizzed in the wake of the 2013 campaign, Americans became confused at the assertion that Canada was their best friend.

“Few would immediately assume this means Canada, despite certainly considering Canada to be a good friend,” said a $58,000 Harris-Decima report on the ads.

Others said the “best friends” assertion made Canada come off as a bit desperate. “Some indicated that claiming you are one’s best friend comes across as something one does when one is about to ask for a huge favour,” read the report.

The focus groups also took umbrage with the word “solution,” saying it suggested “America had a problem that needed solving.”

This time around, the chumminess was downplayed in favour of the more professional “America’s best energy partner.”

The ads also take pains not to lecture their American target audience, relying instead on the passive-aggressive suggestion that the United States could just ignore Canada and “continue to choose less stable offshore sources with much weaker environmental standards.“

WASHINGTON — The mother of a woman who was shot to death by police after a car chase that began when she tried to breach a barrier at the White House said her daughter suffered from post-partum depression.

The harrowing chase Thursday unfolded between two U.S. landmarks, briefly shuttered the chambers where federal lawmakers were debating how to end a government shutdown and stirred fresh panic in a city where a gunman two weeks ago killed 12 people.

Two law enforcement officials identified the driver as 34-year-old Miriam Carey, of Stamford, Connecticut. She was travelling with a 1-year-old girl who avoided serious injury and was taken into protective custody. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Carey’s mother, Idella Carey, told ABC News Thursday night that her daughter began suffering from post-partum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Erica, last August.

“A few months later, she got sick,” she said. “She was depressed. … She was hospitalized.”

Idella Carey said her daughter had “no history of violence” and she didn’t know why she was in Washington on Thursday. She said she thought Carey was taking Erica to a doctor’s appointment in Connecticut.

Police said there appeared to be no direct link to terrorism and there was no indication the woman was even armed. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine, whose officers have been working without pay as a result of the shutdown, called it an “isolated, singular matter.”

Still, tourists, congressional staff and even some senators watched anxiously as a caravan of law enforcement vehicles chased a black Infiniti with Connecticut license plates down Constitution Avenue outside the Capitol and as officers with high-powered firearms canvased the area. The House and Senate both abruptly suspended business, a lawmaker’s speech cut off in mid-sentence, as the Capitol Police broadcast a message over its emergency radio system telling people to stay in place and move away from the windows.

The woman’s car at one point had been surrounded by police cars and she managed to escape, careening around a traffic circle and past the north side of the Capitol building. Video shot by a TV cameraman showed police pointing firearms at her car before she rammed a Secret Service vehicle and continued driving. Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said police shot and killed her a block northeast of the historic building.

In Connecticut, the FBI served a search warrant in connection with the investigation and police cordoned off a condominium building and the surrounding neighbourhood in the shoreline city.

The chain-of-events began when the woman sped onto a driveway leading to the White House, over a set of barricades. When the driver couldn’t get through a second barrier, she spun the car in the opposite direction, flipping a Secret Service officer over the hood of the car as she sped away, said B.J. Campbell, a tourist from Portland, Oregon.

Then the chase began.

AP Photo/Alhurra TelevisionThis image from video provided by Alhurra Television shows police with guns drawn surrounding a black Infiniti near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. A woman with a young child inside tried to ram through a White House barricade, then led police on a chase toward the Capitol, where police shot and killed her, witnesses and officials said.

One Secret Service member and a 23-year veteran of the Capitol Police were injured. Officials said they are in good condition and expected to recover.

Congressman Michael McCaul, who said he was briefed by the Homeland Security Department, said he did not think the woman was armed. “There was no return fire,” he said.

A few senators between the Capitol and their office buildings said they heard the shots.

AP Photo/Alhurra TelevisionThis image from video provided by Alhurra Television shows a black Infiniti speeding near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. A woman with a young child inside tried to ram through a White House barricade, then led police on a chase toward the Capitol, where police shot and killed her, witnesses and officials said.

“We heard three, four, five pops,” said Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Police ordered Casey and nearby tourists to crouch behind a car for protection, then hustled everyone into the Capitol.

Others witnessed the incident, too.

“There were multiple shots fired and the air was filled with gunpowder,” said Berin Szoka, whose office at a technology think-tank overlooks the shooting scene.

ALHURRA TELEVISION-/AFP/Getty ImagesThis framegrab taken courtesy of Alhurra Television, shows police officers with guns drawn approaching a black car on October 3, 2013, near the US Capitol. A volley of shots rang out outside the US Capitol building as police intercepted a suspect Thursday, sending lawmakers and tourists scattering for cover and triggering a massive security operation.

AP Photo/Alhurra TelevisionThis image from video provided by Alhurra Television shows police with guns drawn surrounding a black Infiniti near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. A woman with a young child inside tried to ram through a White House barricade, then led police on a chase toward the Capitol, where police shot and killed her, witnesses and officials said.

The shooting comes two weeks after a mentally disturbed employee terrorized the Navy Yard with a shotgun, leaving 13 people dead including the gunman.

Before the disruption, lawmakers had been trying to find common ground to end a government shutdown. The House had just finished approving legislation aimed at partly lifting the government shutdown by paying National Guard and Reserve members.

Capitol Police on the plaza around the Capitol said they were working without pay as the result of the shutdown. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said a bill to pay them was under consideration.

AP First responders put a police officer on the stretcher after pulling his out of a wrecked police car after shots fired were reported near 2nd Street NW and Constitution Avenue on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on October 3, 2013. The US Capitol was placed on security lockdown Thursday after shots were fired outside the complex, senators said. "Shots fired outside the Capitol. We are in temporary lock down," Senator Claire McCaskill said on Twitter. Police were seen running within the Capitol building and outside as vehicles swarmed to the scene. AFP Photo/Jewel SamadJEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

Win McNamee/Getty ImagesLaw enforcement personnel gather around a police vehicle that was involved in an incident with another vehicle on Constitution Avenue outside the U.S. Capitol October 3, 2013 in Washington, DC.

AFP Photo/Jewel SamadJEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty ImagesPeople take cover as gun shots were being heard at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on October 3, 2013. The US Capitol was placed on security lockdown Thursday after shots were fired outside the complex, senators said. "Shots fired outside the Capitol. We are in temporary lock down," Senator Claire McCaskill said on Twitter. Police were seen running within the Capitol building and outside as vehicles swarmed to the scene.

WASHINGTON — Investigators focused Thursday on the erratic behaviour of a former U.S. Navy reservist who law enforcement officials say had reported hearing voices before he shot dead 12 people at a military base in Washington this week. The national conversation turned once again to mental health, and to gun control.

On Monday morning, he brought with him a legally obtained shotgun on which the cryptic messages of “better off this way” and “my ELF weapon” were scrawled, according to a law enforcement document reviewed by The Associated Press. The meaning of those words wasn’t immediately clear.

The shotgun was brought into the building disassembled and pieced together by Alexis once inside, according to a law enforcement official and a senior defence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

That firearm would not be covered under a previously proposed weapons ban supported by the White House.

Monday’s rampage lasted more than 30 minutes, unusually long for a mass shooting, and the Capitol Police, which protects members of Congress and Congressional buildings, has ordered an investigation into the force’s response. Reports say a tactical response team arrived within minutes and was told by a supervisor to relax its state of alert. The base is less than three miles (4 kilometres) from the Capitol.

If the reports are accurate, “It would be an unbearable failure,” Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer said in an email.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered two reviews of military security and employee screening programs, acknowledging that “a lot of red flags” may have been missed in the background check of 34-year-old Aaron Alexis.

Alexis, who entered the base with a valid security badge, was killed in a shootout with police. The base reopened as normal Thursday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said Alexis visited two hospitals in the weeks before the shooting but denied that he was depressed or had thoughts of harming himself or others.

Alexis complained of insomnia during an Aug. 23 emergency room visit to a VA Medical Center. He was given sleep medication and advised to follow up with a doctor. He made a similar visit five days later to the VA hospital in Washington. His medication was refilled.

Alexis appeared “alert and oriented,” the VA said in a statement presented to lawmakers.

Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesPolicemen stand guard outside the home of Cathleen Alexis, the mother of Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, on September 17, 2013 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

Two weeks before his ER visit, he complained to police in Rhode Island that people were talking to him through the walls and ceilings of his hotel room and sending microwave vibrations into his body to deprive him of sleep. Navy officials said the police reported the incident to officers at the local base security office, but nothing more was done because he did not appear to be a threat.

Alexis, who had interest in Buddhism and Thai language and culture, also visited a Buddhist temple in Massachusetts last month and talked about noises in his head. Eang Tan, a board member at the Thai Buddhist temple, said Alexis addressed temple members in fluent Thai and asked for a place to spend the night. He spent one night, then left.

Despite his past incidents with police over his gun use, Alexis maintained his security clearance as he arrived in Washington in late August for a job as an information technology employee at a defence-related computer company.

Alexis had been a full-time Navy reservist from 2007 to early 2011, and a Navy spokesman said his security clearance, at the “secret level,” was good for 10 years from when he got it.

AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteThe American flags surrounding the Washington Monument fly at half-staff as ordered by President Barack Obama following the deadly shooting Monday at the Washington Navy Yard, Tuesday morning, Sept. 17, 2013, in Washington.

Alexis’s mother said Wednesday she does not know why her son opened fire.

WASHINGTON — Aaron Alexis, 34, of Fort Worth Texas is allegedly the shooter in a rampage at heart of a U.S. Navy complex in Washington that left at least 13 people dead Monday, police say.

The New York Times reports that a police officer was in surgery after being shot by the gunman.

Alexis was believed to have a criminal record in Texas and said he may have gotten into the Navy Yard by using someone else’s identification card. The two officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Alexis was identified through his finger prints.

The shooting led to tightened security at the Capitol and White House nearby, including shutting down the Senate while a possible remaining shooter was sought. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced the death toll and said people were being told to stay in their homes and out of the area. President Barack Obama said he is mourning “yet another mass shooting” and called it a “cowardly act.”

[ustream id=522594 live=1 hwaccel=1 version=3 width=620 height=378]

Lanier said there was no indication of a possible motive.

The shooter was a Navy employee whose work status had been changed earlier this year, said a federal government official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. While that may suggest the motive was job related, authorities haven’t ruled out anything including terrorism, the official said.

The New York Times reports that Alexis was enlisted full-time as a reservist in 2007 and then left the service in early 2011. The highest rank he achieved was mate third class and he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Police said a man in a tan, military-style outfit who had been sought in connection with the shooting had been identified and was not a suspect or a person of interest in the slayings. The D.C. Police Department said in a tweet Monday that the man has been identified and is not believed to be a gunman or otherwise involved in the shootings,

Witnesses described a gunman firing down on a cafeteria from an upper floor and a gunman firing at people in a hallway on another floor. It wasn’t clear whether the witnesses were describing the same gunman.

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About 3,000 people work at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters, which builds, buys and maintains the Navy’s ships and submarines and combat systems.

Todd Brundidge said he and other co-workers encountered a gunman in a hallway on the third floor. The gunman was wearing all blue, he said.

“He just turned and started firing,” Brundidge said.

Terrie Durham added, “He aimed high and missed. He said nothing. As soon as I realized he was shooting, we just said, ’Get out of the building.”’

Rick Mason said a gunman was shooting from a fourth-floor overlook in the hallway outside his office. He said the gunman was aiming down at people in the building’s cafeteria. Mason said he could hear the shots but could not see a gunman.

Mason said there are multiple levels of security to reach his office. That “makes me think it might have been someone who works here,” he said.

Patricia Ward said she was in the cafeteria.

“It was three gunshots straight in a row — pop, pop, pop. Three seconds later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, so it was like about a total of seven gunshots, and we just started running,” Ward told reporters.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty ImagesPolice tactical units leave after responding to a shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., Monday.

One person died at George Washington University Hospital of a single gunshot wound to the left temple, said Dr. Babak Sarani, director of trauma and acute care surgery.

Janis Orlowski, chief operating officer of Washington Hospital Center, told reporters the hospital was treating three gunshot victims in critical condition. One was a Washington police officer and two were civilian women.

Orlowski said the police officer had gunshot wounds to the legs. One woman had a gunshot wound to the shoulder, and the other had gunshot wounds to the head and hand.

A shooting rampage in the heart of a U.S. Navy complex in Washington left 13 people dead Monday. One shooter was killed, but police were looking for one other possible gunman wearing a military-style uniform.

President Barack Obama said he was mourning “yet another mass shooting” and called it a “cowardly act.”

Officials said at least three people were critically wounded in the rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, including a law enforcement officer. Hospital officials said all three were expected to recover.

Federal law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old former Navy reservist from Fort Worth, Texas. The Navy said he was a petty officer 3rd class in a fleet logistics support unit.

Officials believe Alexis had a criminal record in Texas and may have gotten into the Navy Yard by using someone else’s identification card. The two officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The shooting led to tightened security at the Capitol and White House nearby, including shutting down the Senate while a possible remaining shooter was sought. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced the death toll and said people were being told to stay in their homes and out of the area.

NP GraphicsClick to Enlarge

FBIPictures of Aaron Alexis released by the FBI

Lanier said there was no indication of a possible motive.

The shooter was a Navy employee whose work status had been changed earlier this year, said a federal government official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. While that may suggest the motive was job related, authorities haven’t ruled out anything including terrorism, the official said.

Police said a man in a tan, military-style outfit who had been sought in connection with the shooting had been identified and was not a suspect or a person of interest in the slayings. The D.C. Police Department said in a tweet Monday that the man has been identified and is not believed to be a gunman or otherwise involved in the shootings,

Witnesses described a gunman firing down on a cafeteria from an upper floor and a gunman firing at people in a hallway on another floor. It wasn’t clear whether the witnesses were describing the same gunman.

About 3,000 people work at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters, which builds, buys and maintains the Navy’s ships and submarines and combat systems.

Todd Brundidge said he and other co-workers encountered a gunman in a hallway on the third floor. The gunman was wearing all blue, he said.

“He just turned and started firing,” Brundidge said.

Terrie Durham added, “He aimed high and missed. He said nothing. As soon as I realized he was shooting, we just said, ’Get out of the building.”’

Alex Wong/Getty ImagesPeople in Washington, D.C., come out from a building with their hands up after a shooting Monday.

AP Photo/Don AndresEmergency personnel attending to a scene where a gunman opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard Monday.

Rick Mason said a gunman was shooting from a fourth-floor overlook in the hallway outside his office. He said the gunman was aiming down at people in the building’s cafeteria. Mason said he could hear the shots but could not see a gunman.

Mason said there are multiple levels of security to reach his office. That “makes me think it might have been someone who works here,” he said.

Patricia Ward said she was in the cafeteria.

“It was three gunshots straight in a row — pop, pop, pop. Three seconds later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, so it was like about a total of seven gunshots, and we just started running,” Ward told reporters.

One person died at George Washington University Hospital of a single gunshot wound to the left temple, said Dr. Babak Sarani, director of trauma and acute care surgery.

Janis Orlowski, chief operating officer of Washington Hospital Center, told reporters the hospital was treating three gunshot victims in critical condition. One was a Washington police officer and two were civilian women.

Orlowski said the police officer had gunshot wounds to the legs. One woman had a gunshot wound to the shoulder, and the other had gunshot wounds to the head and hand.

Patricia Ward, a logistics-management specialist, said she was in the cafeteria getting breakfast.

AP Photo/Don AndresEmergency personnel attending to a scene where a gunman was reported at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington Monday.

“It was three gunshots straight in a row – pop, pop, pop. Three seconds later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, so it was like about a total of seven gunshots, and we just started running,” Ward told reporters several blocks away from the Navy Yard.

Ward said security officers started directing people out of the building with guns drawn.

One person died at George Washington University Hospital of a single gunshot wound to the left temple, said Dr. Babak Sarani, director of trauma and acute care surgery. A police officer and two civilian women were in critical condition at Washington Hospital Center, said Janis Orlowski, the hospital’s chief operating officer.

Orlowski said the police officer was in the operating room with gunshot wounds to the legs. One woman had a gunshot wound to the shoulder. The other had gunshot wounds to the head and hand.

Alexis was believed to have a criminal record in Texas and said he may have gotten into the Navy Yard by using someone else’s identification card. The two officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Alexis was identified through his finger prints.

AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteU.S. Capitol Police personnel keep watch on the East Plaza of the Capitol as the investigation continues to the shooting at the nearby Washington Navy Yard Monday.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. capital is well-known for being over-run with politicians, lobbyists and diplomats.

But there’s another group that’s in over-abundance in D.C. and its swaths of leafy parkland — the white-tailed deer, a familiar sight to almost everyone living in the area.

Following years of study and ongoing uproar, the National Park Service is in the midst of a three-day hunt aimed at dramatically culling deer in the city’s Rock Creek Park, a 20-kilometre stretch of dense forest, rocky ravines and winding trails that run alongside a burbling offshoot of the Potomac River.

Like many similar parks in D.C. and its surrounding suburbs, Rock Creek is a veritable deer paradise. The Park Service estimates there are about 30 deer per square kilometre in the park, and is hoping sharpshooters can reduce the herd to about eight per square kilometre.

The deer have had an unlikely ally in Marion Barry, the notorious former D.C. mayor who now sits on city council.

“The NPS will be sharp shooting deer in Rock Creek Park. So wrong,” Barry wrote in a tweet earlier this week, using the hashtag #dontkillbambi. “Can they be relocated? I mean the NPS. The deer can stay.”

Barry apologized after one of his tweets called the Park Service a condensed version of a vulgar slur. The former mayor told the Washington Post he didn’t personally send the tweets.

“The thrust of it was right, the thing that went too far was the (version of the slur),” Barry said. “I have a lot of tweets, some I send out personally and some I send out by staff.”

But he added he wasn’t backing down from his stance on the cull: “There has to be a better way to manage the deer population.”

Advocates of the deer cull have long argued it’s necessary to control tick outbreaks and protect vegetation — the deer feast on tree seedlings, not to mention the flower and vegetable gardens of vexed home-owners.

They also insist that thinning the herd is humane, given deer are forced into more dangerous, urbanized areas if over-crowded.

Dozens of deer are killed every year along the city’s roadways, particularly on the well-travelled Rock Creek Parkway running north from the Lincoln Memorial into the Maryland suburbs.

Stories of deer becoming trapped in unlikely places are also semi-regular occurrences in the region. The Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service has estimated that every year in the state’s D.C. bedroom communities about a half-dozen deer crash through windows or enter buildings or homes.

Four years ago, two dogs in downtown Silver Spring, Md., chased a nine-month-old buck through the front window of a Greek restaurant. The bloodied deer escaped, but stumbled, disoriented, into a nearby grocery store, and was later put down due to his injuries.

Later that year, a female deer stumbled into a lion enclosure at the city’s National Zoo. Like two housecats with a mouse, two lionesses brutally mauled the deer in front of horrified onlookers; the doe was later euthanized.

The number of white-tailed deer in the U.S. has soared from a few hundred thousand about a century ago to an estimated 30 million today. That’s largely due to a lack of predators and the expansion of deer-friendly suburban landscapes.

Virginia’s Fairfax County and Maryland’s Montgomery County have already culled deer this year.

Animal rights activists have nonetheless fought the cull for years in D.C., urging authorities to use non-lethal methods, including birth control, to reduce the size of the herd instead.

But the National Park Service stands by its “difficult decision,” it said in a statement.

The three-year deer-control program is critical to “ensuring the forest is able to support native plants and animals found in Rock Creek Park in a sustainable manner for this and future generations,” said park superintendent Tara Morrison.

Sharpshooters began culling the deer overnight on Wednesday and will continue through Saturday night. The deer are being butchered and the meat is provided to local food banks.

The animal rights group In Defense of Animals has been holding nightly vigils to protest the cull.

“Practically tame and pregnant deer will be lured to piles of apples and grain where they will be mowed down with bullets and arrows,” the group said.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A U.S. judge on Wednesday ordered a Moroccan man to be held on charges that he planned a suicide bombing attack against the U.S. Congress, believing he was working with al Qaeda militants when in fact his contacts were undercover agents.

Amine El Khalifi, 29 and an illegal immigrant, was arrested last week and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. government property, intending to detonate a bomb and to shoot people.

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He was arrested just blocks from the U.S. Capitol and had been the subject of a lengthy undercover investigation by the FBI who said the public was never in danger because he was monitored and only given weapons that were inoperable.

El Khalifi popped up on law enforcement authorities’ radar in January 2011 when a confidential source told authorities that he met with others in Virginia and agreed with statements that the group needed to be ready for war, according to court documents.

A law enforcement agent went undercover posing as a member of an armed extremist group and met with him in December 2011 where they discussed various plots to attack U.S. military offices, an Army general, a Jewish synagogue and a Washington, D.C. restaurant, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court.

In January, El Khalifi switched his planned target to the U.S. Capitol. He detonated a test bomb just over a month ago in a quarry in West Virginia and he “expressed a desire for a larger explosion in his attack” at the Capitol, the FBI said.

The arrest and charges are the latest in a string of undercover operations by the Obama administration. U.S. officials have become increasingly concerned about individuals launching attacks within the United States.

According to court records, El Khalifi entered the United States in 1999 on a visa, overstayed it and never applied for U.S. citizenship. That has prompted criticism from lawmakers about the ability of visitors to overstay visas and not get caught.

El Khalifi, wearing a green prison jumpsuit, waived his right to a detention hearing. Judge John Anderson said the suspect’s immigration status and the charges against him warrant his remaining in custody. The hearing lasted just a few minutes.

The case is next expected to be presented to a grand jury, which will consider whether there is enough evidence to bring him to trial.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/judge-orders-moroccan-man-held-in-u-s-capitol-terror-plot-charges/feed/1stdAmine El Khalifi is pictured in this police photograph released to Reuters February 21, 2012. Authorities arrested El Khalifi on February 17, 2012 near the U.S. Capitol as part of a terrorism investigation, saying he sought to use explosives, according to the U.S. Justice Department and Capitol Police.Occupy Washington on the verge of being kicked outhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/30/occupy-washington-on-the-verge-of-being-kicked-out/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/30/occupy-washington-on-the-verge-of-being-kicked-out/#commentsMon, 30 Jan 2012 15:11:38 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=135200

Noon deadline to remove camping gear, tents can stay

Some protesters have complied, others say they won’t

Parks quiet, little early morning police presence

By Lily Kuo and Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON — Anti-Wall Street protesters were divided on Monday over whether to resist police efforts to halt overnight camping at two parks just blocks from the White House.

The National Park Service said they would enforce a ban at noon on “Occupy” protesters camping overnight in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza.

Fears of potential clashes mounted after police used a stun gun Sunday on one protester, who was arrested on disorderly conduct charges. The deadline in Washington follows a new burst of unrest at “Occupy” protests in Oakland, California, over the weekend.

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In a string of “Occupy” demonstrations across the United States since September, protesters have targeted the nation’s growing income gap, corporate greed and what they see as unfair tax structure favoring the richest 1 percent of Americans.

Just hours before the deadline early on Monday morning, plastic tarpaulins still blanketed the square block area of McPherson Square. Journalists outnumbered police officers.

As dawn broke, some protesters had already complied with the order to move their sleeping gear, but it remained unclear whether the encampment would be dismantled by the noon deadline.

In Freedom Plaza, protester Feriha Kaya said demonstrators were mixed over whether they will comply, but they agreed the ban on camping will not stop their efforts.

“Some said they would resist. Some said they won’t take their stuff out of the tents, and some will,” she said. “It will not stop anything of why we came here and what we have to do.”

Obama has seized on the debate to call for higher taxes on the richest Americans and has made economic inequality a central theme of his administration and bid for re-election.

Unlike in other cities, protesters in Washington have been able to stay in the parks since October. That has irked some city officials who are concerned about rats, trash and health issues.

It has also prompted some Republicans to suggest that the White House is supporting the protest and bending the rules by not enforcing the no-camping regulation for such federal parks.

National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis last week defended the agency’s handling of the protesters and pointed its large-scale protests during decades of demonstrations.

The Occupy protests had faded over the last few weeks but flared anew on Saturday when violence broke out in Oakland, California and 400 demonstrators were arrested during a night of skirmishes with police. Oakland has become a flashpoint of the protests and the arrests there were one of the largest mass detentions since the movement began.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/30/occupy-washington-on-the-verge-of-being-kicked-out/feed/1stdAn overall view of the McPherson Square Occupy encampment on K Street in Washington, DC on January 30, 2012. The National Park Service has warned the protesters at McPherson Square and at Freedom Plaza that those who violate the camping rule beginning Monday at noon will be subject to arrest. Protesters have stated they intend to stay at the two sites and defend their encampments. The Occupiers are referring to the action as the "High Noon" showdown.Graphic: Irene’s trail of death and destructionhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2011/08/29/graphic-irenes-trail-of-death-and-destruction/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/08/29/graphic-irenes-trail-of-death-and-destruction/#commentsMon, 29 Aug 2011 23:36:30 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=91980

Over the weekend hurricane Irene wrecked havoc across the east coast of the United States and Canada. Below, a graphical look at the damage and death. Click the image for a larger version or click here for the PDF.

“The U.S. constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign sources,” says U.S News and World Report. “so when foreign dignitaries present extravagant gifts to federal employees or their family members, those presents get reported to the State Department and are often stored away or put on display.”

In the past the lucky ladies received two 15-piece nesting doll sets from Russia worth $500; four scarves, one teddy bear and a jewelry box from South Korea, worth $570; four dresses, two jackets by the designer Isabel Garreton from Chile worth $815; and four books and 17 DVDs from Australia worth $470.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/15/sasha-and-malia-obama-must-give-up-7000-gift-from-saudi-arabia/feed/1stdObama returns to the White House in Washington